He`ll Teach You How To Beat Lie Detector

Fifteen years ago, J. Neal Hodge was working as a security officer for a grocery chain when he was asked to take a polygraph test. The tester asked him if he ever stole anything from an employer.

Hodge said no, but when he was working for RCA he was told he could keep a gun he used for work. The tester wrote on his report that Hodge stole the gun, and Hodge was fired.

``I never forgot that,`` Hodge said, and he went into the polygraph business. Now he`s offering a service with a twist.

Depending upon the case, Hodge is offering to tell people how to ``beat`` the lie detector machine.

``I thought about this for a year,`` said Hodge, who has been administering polygraphs since 1973. ``If there are five people in the state of Florida (doing this) we`d put the polygraph industry out of business,`` meaning that enough people could know how to pass the test to make it obsolete.

Hodge, a Coral Springs resident, said he wants to give certain people ``a second chance.``

If someone was fired from a job for stealing because of extenuating circumstances or was in need of a break, Hodge said he would instruct that person how to pass a polygraph when going for a job interview.

``I`m not going to help someone beat a murder rap or a robbery or a rape,`` said Hodge, who charges $25 to learn the procedure, which can take less than an hour.

In addition to his own experiences, Hodge said he knows of at least one polygraph firm that will deliberately flunk people in order to collect more fees. He said the firm will flunk one or two persons being considered for employment before passing a third person. That way, the polygraph company gets to collect three fees for screening instead or one fee.

Hodge said he considered offering his ``beat-the-lie-detector`` service for about a year before he finally decided it was ethical, ``even though I have a few doubts about it still.``

Rios, who conducts polygraphs for both businesses and law enforcement agencies such as the Broward State Attorney`s Office and the U.S. Attorney`s Office, said, ``There`s no reason to lie. A person comes out far, far ahead if he`s honest. If you say, `Look, I made a mistake,` most employers will take a chance.``

Rios is a sergeant with the Broward Sheriff`s Office and said he knows of an Orlando company that has done quite well teaching people how to beat a polygraph.

A former narcotics agent, Hodge currently screens employees for commercial businesses, mostly retail operations in food and housewares, from his Oakland Park office.

Hodge wouldn`t disclose how a person could be trained to pass a polygraph. He said polygraphs work by measuring changes in a person`s respiratory system, pulse and the electrical impulses in the skin.

Some people, he said, are so convinced that whatever they say is the truth that when they lie, it doesn`t register on the test results.

Hodge said that studies have shown the polygraph to be about 90 percent reliable. ``But that means that even the best of them (polygraph operators) are wrong one out of 10 times,`` he said.